Chocolate Mint Madeleines

Quirk Books gave me a lovely opportunity to throw a madeleine themed party to celebrate the release of their new book Madeleines: Elegant French Tea Cakes to Bake and Share by Barbara Feldman Morse!

And for some reason I can't leave well enough alone. I saw her Dark Chocolate Espresso Madeleine recipe and instead walked away with Chocolate Mint Madeleines. I'm not much for espresso, but the recipe looked easily adaptable and the results were wonderful!

I replaced the semisweet chocolate with Andes baking chips and the espresso powder with Dutch cocoa. I am ecstatic with the results! Dark, rich, minty, light, fresh and then dipped in mint chocolate and sprinkles. Perfection!

Chocolate Mint Madeleines

adapted from Madeleines: Elegant French Tea Cakes to Bake and Share by Barbara Feldman Morse
makes 12 madeleins

6 tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Andes baking chips
1/2 tbsp. Dutch cocoa
1/3 cup warm water
1 large egg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 ounces Andes baking chips

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Put butter, sugar, Andes baking chips, and Dutch cocoa in a microwavable glass bowl. Microwave for 1 minute, stir until smooth. If butter is not fully melted, microwave for an additional 10 seconds and stir again.

Pour mixture into a large bowl or stand mixer. Add egg and whisk well. Add the flour and cocoa; whisk thoroughly. It will be dark, thick and shiny.

Coat one 12-shell pan with baking spray or additional melted butter.

Using a spoon, fill shells molds with batter until nearly full.

Bake for 10-13 minutes until puffed and no shiny spots remain.

Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Carefully remove madeleines after 2-3 minutes and allow to cool completely.

To prepare the glaze, place butter into a small saucepan. On lowest heat setting, allow to melt. Add in chocolate baking pieces. Stir continuously until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from heat.

Dunk each madeleine at and angle and immerse nearly 1/3 of the way. At the same angle, dip into sprinkles covering most of the chocolate.

Allow to set.

Enjoy!

Mojito Snowball Cookies

A take on a classic snowball cookie, these cookies have a hint of lime, mint, and rum flavoring to give them a hint of the refreshing taste of a mojito. 

Sunday's Iron Chef Lime dinner was INSANE! We have never had such a large turnout! I could hardly breathe! The votes were in and everyone LOVED the lime challenge! We had dishes in every shape and size! Fiesta Chicken Fettuccine, turkey, lime bars, three cheesecakes, lime sherbet with blueberry coulis, pad thai, pulled pork salad with lime cilantro dressing, nachos, four different drinks, yogurt, lime coconut cake, and the list goes on and on!

It took THREE of us to gather the votes and its was close! One vote either way and we were looking at a three way tie between the lime sherbet with blueberry coulis, the pulled pork salad with lime cilantro dressing, and a lime and white chocolate no bake cheesecake. Personally I voted for the pulled pork....because I left the dressing off and was happily oblivious to the taste of lime! After five minutes of calling out votes we had a winner! The no bake cheesecake! Congratulations to Eve and Dave on their winning dish! The recipe is posted below!

If your new to my blog, you may not know that I am not a huge fan of lemons and limes. I love oranges, tangerines and clementines....but....lime? lemon? Not my favorite. I'm sure you know the feeling where, if you don't like a certain flavor it's ALL you taste in the dish. So while I can taste the lime easily in my cookies, it turns out that others couldn't! I HATE that. Everyone agreed the cookies were delicious, just not as "limey" as a mojito cookie should be. Booooo. So, take my recipe and consider it to be a "to taste" guideline. If it were up to me, the cookies would just be mint. No lime. But that's not the challenge!

Cheers!

Mojito Snowball Cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons lime cocktail syrup (to taste. I prefer a very light lime flavor)

2 tablespoons rum or 1 tsp. rum extract

2 teaspoons peppermint sugar (made from a handful of peppermint candies)

1 cup powdered sugar

Using a food processor, grind a handful of peppermint candies into a fine powder.

Whisk flour and cornstarch in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in lime juice, rum or rum extract, and peppermint sugar. Beat in flour mixture until smooth. Refrigerate dough until just firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using scant 1 tablespoon for each, form dough into balls and place on prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.

Bake cookies until pale golden on top and browned on bottom, about 23 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to racks; immediately sift generous amount of powdered sugar over cookies. Cool cookies completely on baking sheets.

Key Lime Mousse Pie

as adapted from Paula Deen

2 cups crushed graham crackers

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

6 tablespoons fresh key lime juice

1 1/4 ounces (1 envelope) package unflavored gelatin

2 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided

10 ounces finest quality white chocolate, chopped

24 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons lime zest

1 1/2 ounces white chocolate, grated or shaved into curls, for garnish

Mix together the cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter. Press the mixture into the bottom and 1-inch up the sides of a 10-inch springform pan. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the lime juice. Whisk in the gelatin and 1/2 cup of the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Add 10 ounces of white chocolate and stir until smooth. Allow to cool.

Using an electric mixer, blend together the cream cheese, sugar and lime zest in a medium bowl, until smooth. Slowly beat in the cooled white chocolate mixture into cream cheese mixture.

Using clean, dry beaters, beat the remaining 2-cups heavy cream in a small bowl, until it forms soft peaks. Fold it into the white chocolate mixture and pour into the pie crust. Cover and freeze overnight.

Remove from freezer and run a sharp knife around inside of springform pan to help loosen the pie. Release springform ring from the bottom of the pan and transfer the pie to a serving plate. Grate or curl the white chocolate over the top. Cut into wedges with a knife that has been dipped into hot water and serve.

Making Your Own Extracts

clockise: lavender, hazelnut, chocolate mint, vanilla, cinnamon

Last week I was sitting at Trivia Night and my friend Jimmy did a dangerous thing: he mentioned that a person could make her own cooking extracts.

It had honestly not occurred to me to make my own! And after searching in vain for lychee extract a few weeks ago I couldn’t let go of the idea. I talked it over with Butchie and we decided that instead of our usual baking night, we’d spend a night making the ingredients to bake with! (For anyone with a religious reason for not cooking with alcohol I advise using imitation extracts: hopefully you already knew your average vanilla flavoring is 35% alcohol and lemon flavoring close to 60%. In fact, I believe there is more alcohol in rum flavoring than there is in actual rum!!!)

After spending the better part of an afternoon researching what alcohol I would want to use, I stumbled upon a web post about using Everclear straight grain alcohol only to learn that I can’t buy Everclear in DC! Or Virginia! [Damn liquor laws. –B.] So after a little jaunt into Maryland, I had my brown bag in hand and was ready for making extracts!

Despite the copious amount of alcohol in the kitchen we were actually less clumsy than usual. No flying spoons, no mishaps with a kitchen knife. Stephen did an excellent job at preparing the mint, and Butchie didn’t even burn herself roasting the hazelnuts! …But I guess since we weren’t drinking any of the alcohol that doesn’t make this much of an accomplishment. [There are many reasons for our sobriety. But for the record, we do not advise that a person drink Everclear straight. At all. Ever. –B.]

Butchie and I followed the same process for each of our extracts, except that she made hers with Smirnoff vodka [didn’t manage to get up to Maryland in time –B.] and I made mine with straight grain alcohol.  In the future I’ll be updating this post with results, but I wanted to put this up now in case you would like to experiment with us and leave your own notes in the comments!

clockwise: cassia cinnamon shards, vanilla extract,  hazelnuts, vanilla beans, hazelnut nut extract, chocolate mint extract, culinary lavender buds

Cinnamon Extract

Ready In: 2 weeks

2 1/2 tablespoon cassia cinnamon shards

4 oz. Everclear or Vodka

Combine ingredients in a jar. Shake daily for two weeks.

Hazelnut Extract

Ready In: 1 month

1/4 Cup Hazelnuts, skinless, toasted
1/2 Cup Everclear

Pour hazelnuts into a skillet to toast. This should take about 5-7 minutes on a medium heat. If any hazelnuts looked burned do not use them.

Once cooled, chop the nuts coarsely.

Place chopped hazelnuts and alcohol in a jar and close tightly. Allow at least one month before using.

Lavender Extract

Ready In: 1 week

1 tablespoon lavender buds

4 oz Vodka

Combine the ingredients in a jar and twist the lid on, shake, and place out of direct sunlight.

Shake daily for at least one week.

Strain through a sieve lined with a coffee filter. Repeat as necessary.

Vanilla Extract

Ready In: 2 months

3 vanilla beans

8 oz. Vodka or Bourbon

Use kitchen scissors or a sharp paring knife to cut lengthwise down each vanilla bean, splitting them in half, leaving an inch at the end connected.

Put vanilla beans in a glass jar or bottle with a tight fitting lid Cover completely with the alcohol.

Give the bottle a good shake every once in a while. Store in a dark, cool place for 2 months or longer.